The unrealistic Plan A, a financial framework approved by City Council and billionaire Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz‘s company months ago, included a large funding gap of $114 million that Mayor Stephen Mandel was adamant that the provincial government would fill.

Two weeks ago, a split council vote decided that the city would borrow $45 million against expected future Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding, meant for public infrastructure construction and maintenance, to put towards the arena. This still leaves a $55 million gap that the provincial government has said it is not interested in filling.

As Councillors scramble to find a solution to a problem they should have solved months ago, it is now being suggested that more funds from the proposed Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) be directed toward the arena, looting funds already promised for other downtown projects.

Despite being caught in a leaked video plotting to use Preston Manning‘s Calgary-based Municipal Governance Project to free city council from “the dark side,” Mr. Wenzel uncomfortably tried to downplay the evidence exposed by Global Calgary this week.

The problem with urban sprawl is the infrastructure costs. Building more roads, power lines, sewage lines, water lines, more public transit costs, etc. Not to mention using up potentially valuable farmland.

Efforts in Edmonton to reduce urban sprawl have hit two roadblocks. One, is that there is still a huge demand for housing in the far flung areas of the city, especially those near the main routes to Acheson, Nisku and Refinery Row, but not only that, if Edmonton slowed down development in the far reaches of the city limits, then Strathcona County, Sturgeon County, St. Albert, Fort Saskatchewan and Beaumont will just make it easier to develop their peripheries.

The other roadblock is that attempts to increase density in neighbourhoods close to downtown and Old Strathcona have come up against neighbourhood protests, those that don’t want the nature of their communities to be altered.